How Do Words Go Bad?
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- Опубліковано 10 тра 2024
- A pretty swiving good video if you ask me.
@TheStellarJay 's video - • UA-cam banned swear w...
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Patreon: www.patreon.com/user?u=73482298
Sources:
Bostrom, R., Baseheart, J. & Rossiter, C. (1973). "The Effects of Three Types of Profane Language in Persuasive Messages". Journal of Communication, v 23 i 4 (p. 461-475).
Demby, G. (2014). "Why We Have So Many Terms For 'People Of Color'". NPR.
Harper, D. (last updated 2022). "sh*t". Online Etymology Dictionary. [Accessed 21/01/2023].
Hodges, R. (2015). "The Rise and Fall of ‘Mentally Ret*rded’". Human Parts.
Liberman, A. (2008). "f*ck". An Analytic Dictionary of the English Etymology. University of Minnesota Press.
Mohr, M. (2013). Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing. Oxford University Press.
Moore, B. (ed). (2004). The Australian Oxford Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
Ringe, D. (2006). From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic. Oxford University Press.
Sharon, H. (1974). "Terms for Low Intelligence". American Speech.
Sheidlower, J. (1995). The F Word. Oxford University Press.
Stephens, R., Atkins, J. & Kingston, A. (2009). "Swearing as a response to pain". Neuroreport.
0:00 - Intro
1:09 - Euphemisms
2:56 - Sh*t
4:01 - Why Have Swear Words?
5:55 - Outro & Credits
Written and created by me
Art by kvd102
Music by me.
Translations:
Inne Rzeczy - Polish
Дзишу Фурыч - Russian
Macie Cee - Taiwanese Mandarin
Affluenza - Tagalog
Leeuwe van den Heuvel - Dutch
Jet - German
Le Napolitain - French
#youtube #linguistics #swearing
Rule 34 of linguistics: Any combination of sounds is obscene in some language
Rule 63: "You can't say something on the internet and not offend somebody with it"
@@xdarin_ Rule 63a: if you said/posted something on the internet and nobody disliked it, you haven't yet shown it to enough people.
Rule 69: lmao funni number i'm farting and pissingf rn
@xdarin_ say *nothing*
@@simonwillover4175 Rule 63b: Not saying anything, will also offend someone.
"You mum uses them, when she thinks you're not listening"
Nah... The swearwords that I, as a child of immigrants, know in my Mother Tongue, are words I learned, mainly from having them *_directed at me._*
I have noticed it's a very white thing to grow up having your parents avoid swearing in front of you.
Every time my Mum dropped something or stubbed her toe, she would scream "Sugar!" and I just didn't think anything of it - I just thought everyone said that.
Edit: In retrospect, this was a pretty broad sweeping statement to make. I'll still keep the comment here anyway.
@@LinguaPhiliax my parents swore at each other in the middle of the night (one of them white, the other from a culture that doesn’t really have swear words? so she mostly swears in english) but maybe they thought my siblings and I were sleeping? which is very wishful thinking with how loud they were
@@LinguaPhiliax not every white person speaks English. That's very American of you to say.
@@LinguaPhiliax I dunno, we're not white and i never hear my mom saying swear words, either natively or in english to me, but the again she's devout so that could be why
Ah yes, when your family starts swearing more only after you come back of the high school bulling cycle and start using them.
Today I learned that "faeces" is how non-Americans spell "feces". I don't believe I've ever seen the former spelling before. Very interesting.
I'm sure you're aware of the same with 'u'/ 'ou' words (e.g. colour/color, humour/humor, rumour/rumor), but in general the US also replaced œ with o and æ with a, whereas in most other English speaking countries these were instead replaced with oe and ae respectively. So you have faeces/feces, foetus/fetus, diarrhoea/diarrhea, and so on. Of course there are many other spelling differences too: '-ise'/'-ize', 'defence/defense', and so on. Some are fading from use in favour of the US spelling though, for example you rarely see anymore the non-US spelling for 'hiccough' ('hiccup') or 'gaol' ('jail').
@@Iopia100 that is very interesting. I dont think I was aware of any of the oe and ae spellings you mentioned. And some of those others I think I just assume that I misremembered the spelling when i see them (defense/defence and hiccup/hiccough) and didn't even realize they were regional differences. I've always thought hiccough was the correct spelling, but people just shortened it to hiccup
I've never seen it, and I'm American
I have been enlightened in this way aswell
@@blakebergey4809 Daniel Webster made a big point of simplifying spelling when he wrote his first American dictionary.
Fun fact: In the mid 1800's, idiot, moron, and imbecile were not insults or slurs, but clinical terms used to refer to different degrees of intellectual disability. These words were also part of the cycle mentioned in the video
It’s pretty messed up that we keep using terms to refer to mental disability as insults. I forget what term my school used, special ed maybe, and even that was starting to be used as an insult. They had to have everyone go to the auditorium to lecture everyone about it.
I still remember when I learned that "dumb" was originally a term for "mute"
With how the words _autism,_ _autist,_ and _autistic_ are being used in the day of the Internet, I'm suspecting that it will become more and more pejorative and/or derogatory as I grow older, perhaps when I reach about age 40.
I'm diagnosed with autism myself, I'm a person which fits the certified criteria. They already gone away with Asperger's syndrome sometime in 2012 here in the US I feel for similar reasons, I'm expecting it to also happen with the word autism spectrum disorder as a whole at some point in the future.
@@Im-BAD-at-satire Let's not even talk about how people use "OCD" for a cutesy way to say "I'm organised", that it genuinely leads people with a serious anxeity-based PTSD-esque disorder that not only ruins day to day lives, but at worst cases makes you suicidal, to be unaware of it.
Worst part, it isn't even girls on TikTok using OCD this way. I had a teaching assistant (she clearly hated her job as well) out right tell a child (after putting the pencils in the correct spot) that they appear to be a "bit OCD", after asked if that's bad, the TA told the student "no, it's just a posh way of saying you are organised; I am OCD too!".
After I found out the truth of OCD, that teacher genuinely scarred me by saying that.
@@cerebrummaximus3762 Yeah, it's always problematic when that happens.
By certified criteria here I mean diagnosed by a qualified psychiatrist. I have an interest about things relating to law and the words used in these subjects invades my vocabulary now and again.
This is a large symptom of poor education, we need an education system much like Finland's. You can't learn things just by cramming information in, even with a mind that has great memory retention, doing that doesn't teach you anything.
I've always felt that the very reason why swear words are bad is also the same reason why we keep using them: because they're so bad that they can be used to signify extreme emotion, and thank you for confirming that.
that part of it has manifested in a particularly annoying example for me:
i was born in the early 2000s so even though it was already considered offensive, the word “retard/retarded” was still used pretty often when i was growing up before we as a culture finally started really cracking down on the whole “using slurs against people with mental disabilities just to insult your friends” thing, but now even though i dont actually *use* the word, i still *think* the word (and feel bad about it) in reaction to things i find particularly stupid or baffling because the process of watching the word get kicked out of common usage has kinda solidified it in brain as “this is the word for stupid thats so strong you’re not even allowed to say it”
i hope that word doesnt stick around in our culture but it’s definitely wriggled its way into my head
@@disfordumboo4411 lol we might even be the same age. yes I would say that I resonate with you. i avoid using it out loud and uttering it but it's not like we can't stop our brains from thinking of it when we something utterly stupid. But outside that I never really used that word as an insult to anybody even as a friendly joke.
For me, this only really reinforced that the idea of swear words is stupid, and censorship of them is just as stupid.
The German word "Scheiße" used to be harmless before the 18th century (having the same technical meaning as English "shit" used to have). See, for example, the note by the brothers Grimm in the German Wikipedia article about it.
The norwegian word "skjit" (pronounced like sheet) or skjitt (pronounced like shit) is still a harmless, or at least inoffensive word for dirt or grime where i come from. I do catch myself saying it as an expletive, but when i think about it now that may be an example of a semantic loan from english. Maybe it will morph more into a swearword over time?
Same thing with "Pisse". In fact, when Friedrich Wöhler first artificially synthesised urea, he wrote in a letter:
"es bedurfte nun weiter Nichts als einer vergleichenden Untersuchung mit Pisse-Harnstoff, den ich in jeder Sicht selbst gemacht hatte, und dem Cyan-Harnstoff"
"it required nothing more than a comparative study with piss urea, which I had made myself in every regard, and the cyanic urea"
I literally take German as a class so thank you for this helpful word
I'm reminded how the NHS thoughtfully considered all possible options before deciding that its healthcare advice should use the terms "pee" and "poo" in exclusion to other possibilities. The words people knew were often offensive and euphemisms like "faeces" and "urine" (yes, they're euphemism by foreign language), were sometimes unknown.
(Interestingly, they also found that people don't always understand the word "chronic", believing it to mean "serious".)
That's lame. Chronic comes from chronos meaning time. I thought most people knew it meant reoccurring or ongoing.
@@gljames24 I always knew that chronic referred to temporality rather than severity, but the connection with chronos never occurred to me for some reason.
@@gljames24 Bear in mind that you probably have a certain level of education, strong familiarity with English, and an interest in language. We need medical language to be accessible to uneducated people, children, non-native speakers, etc.
The word "pee" always grates on me, for no actual logical reason of course, but because it strikes me an an Americanism. My perception is that in the time between my infancy and the present day it's been displacing what I think of as the native word, like a grey squirrel of urination vocabulary.
We're British damn it, and we "wee" thank you very much! 😂
@@zak3744 I dislike the word “poo”/“poop” because it sounds childish, but I can’t tell my grandmother I’m off to take a “sh*t”
I'm curious if UA-cam is only going to censor English curse words, or if its fine to just curse in a different language
Well, they also censor non-english speaking youtubers.
Let's see: Carajo, culo, coño, guevo, concha.
But here, they all appear in the same video. And from a creator who primarily creates in English. So there may be a difference in how it’s processed, at least until their algorithms are updated.
@@calebsousa2754 Putain de merde. We need to find some real obscure language to swear in so they can't catch it.
There are different guidelines in different regions and countries. Think of how local TV and films have their own PG ratings and things you can't say on TV.
I think the local government agencies are the ones that reach out to entities like UA-cam, Facebook, Twitter, etc. and give them guidelines to continue operating in the country.
I like how all these english slurs mean something completely normal in other languages xD
That's why they were once used as euphemisms (then turned slurs because of bad association either way). Like, people even use scheiße as a euphemism for shit nowadays in English.
@@BreadLoeuf Which, incidentally, was a completely harmless word in German until about the 18th century.
Yeah. In Hungarian, "néger" refers to black people, but without any negative connotation. But recently with more people knowing English, its similarity to the English n-word (which has a very negative connotation) it's becoming less and less accepted.
The R word sometimes does carry it being a slur into other languages.
@@h3nder so much so that... _some_ people _will_ bash other languages for having words barely orthographically similar to that.
Like, yes, Twitter, we really do use "ngga" as a slang word and _no,_ that's not even remotely similar by pronouciation (/əŋ.gaʔ/) or meaning (a negator, like "not" or "nah"). Now stop telling us what to say like it's the 30s.
Sorry, had to get that out of my chest
If you really want to insult someone, but not be censored and possibly not be understood, call them a 'cloaca'. After all, if calling someone an anal orifice and a genital orifice are both bad, it must be a lot worse to be a combination of the two.
The term cloaca comes from Latin and originally means sewers. The Roman sewers were called cloaca maxima.
@@sirlord7145 This word then also got loaned into Swedish as Kloak meaning exactly that, sewer.
"You are so unbelievably stupid that your very existence is the anti-thesis to the illegality of eugenics." If they get it, it pisses them off, if they don't get it, it pisses them off because they are too stupid to get it. It is a beautiful insult with no swearing.
My lizard has one of these.
Her name is Dancer, gut I call her Babyweewee for short.
I'm training to be a nurse, and I tell my patients that it's alright to swear if they're in pain if it helps them because it could just be the thing that helps them deal with it especially if we're doing something that is going to cause unavoidable pain. I wouldn't accept a patient swearing aggressively to me but I really don't mind if it's just letting out some frustration if they are uncomfortable or sore.
Very true, that action (swearing to get relief) goes for the name of 'lalochezia' and it seems to be natural for most folk.
This is where the very fine line is incredibly important. Swearing in a room with medical staff? Perfectly fine. Swearing *at* medical staff? You won’t be helped.
”Perkele” in finnish is an interesting one, as it was originally the name of the god of thunder and not a curse word, but later changed by christianity to mean the devil which even appears in later bible translations.
VITTU SENTÄÄN K KAUPALT LOPPU HUUMEET TAAS
@@Bluestlark HHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA ÐAT'S AN AWESOME VIDEO IF I EVER SAW ONE
@@tomasbeltran04050 based thorn
in lithuanian the god of thunder is "perkūnas" which sounds very similar to perkele
@@spaceowel363 ðat was eð, but þank you anyways. Long live Old English letters
goshdarn, this video swives
i'm going to adopt "swive" into my dialect now, thank you
This is faecely underrated
@@David280GG truly a sard moment
i'm remembering the time when my sister, who speaks french, was talking about an awkward late laugh but forgot the word 'late' and said 'r*tarded laugh' because she mixed languages 😅
oh nooo, lol!
It's always interesting to me that, every time you learn a new language with said language's native speakers, they would almost always start by teaching you swear/naughty words. So, if you are a polyglot, you're likely used to listening to swear words all the time.
I think it's interesting that swear words in other languages never have the same impact than the ones in the language you grew up with. My first language is spanish and I *never* say any swear words but in english I say almost too many, it just doesn't have the same weight cuz I was never taught they were "forbidden" words
@@sopapopp, lol, I'm quite the same. I mean, I *do* use a very tremendous amount of swear words even in my mother tongue-Spanish too-but I think I frequently swear in English in some different ways from what I do in Spanish. I sorta agree with the thing that those words don't feel that heavy to me, but I believe also that I use them the way I do in English because it's what I've got to see (and I also consider that my personality is somehow and somewhat more confident in English and that's one reason else for sure).
@@sopapopp I feel the same. I do cuss a fair bit in my native language, Danish, but compared to English it's nothing. I guess nowadays, a lot of people learn English by using the internet, which is, or at least used to be, a fairly relaxed space where people don't care that much if you swear, so we're used to that just being the default way to speak the language.
Indeed, that's always the first thing I'm interested in when approaching a new language
@@sopapopp Same, in my native language I say vulgarisms as normal words but when I swear I have a good reason, while in English I use swear words as normal words as well.
How close is amongus to being a swear word
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
not close
am*ngus
We gotta give it meaning......what if we commit ww2 in the name of amongus?
@@r35ct12 because ww2 has totally not happened yet
Love the fact that English swear words are borrowed and speakers can use them to get away with swearing if they feel like their native words are too strong or there's no clear alternative. One language that's often touted wrongly of having no swear words is Japanese but there's a great UA-cam vid by That Japanese Man Yuta who explains the subtleties behind it, the cultural background, how they use sh*t just like in English and have made the English 'fakku' their own
The last Animated Linguistics UA-camr that made a video on this topic disappeared right after. He literally said the N word and then disappeared forever
he’s only disappeared from making videos, he’s still alive and well in comments sections like the lil cryptid he is
(love you xidnaf
Oh noooo he said the niggie word
He got shot by UA-cam
May he rest in peace.
didn't xidnaf make a video like in the last year?
Hey, I would like to add that for me the most interesting part about the euphemism cycle is the part of the theory that every new euphemism society "invents" to describe something more politically correct (like "obese" > "fat", "disabled/handicapped" > "r*tarded") develops this negative characteristic too, as long as the real world conditions don't change.
I'm not sure that's true, and I couldn't find as fitting examples as I know for German (my mother tongue), but I hope I could add something interesting.
That's why They come up with awkward expressions like African-American. No one uses it informally, so it's immune to the euphemism cycle.
@@Frisbieinstein Don't people use the word "african-american" because the word "afro-american" is considered outdated (and maybe offensive? don't know, I'm not american).
Just to say that there is no reason for "african-american" to be immune to that cycle. It may even be used because of that very cycle.
@@cubicbanban It may have resulted from the euphemism cycle, but by now the expression has been around for maybe thirty years and shows no sign of becoming derogatory..
@@Frisbieinstein maybe you just need to wait longer. I don't know, but these cycles may take a long time to complete.
You can't use obese or disabled anymore, the PC words are "plus-sized" and "differently abled" 😂
Classic youtube being french
UA-cam's demonitisation of swear words, even of linguistical videos, is so youtube.
I get the reference
What an absolute youtube tbh
Such a UA-cam take, good on you mate
ugh so true. i agree w you, youtube take
i study linguistics and i learn more from you than my school lol. i think I've seen this "semantic loan" concept in one of my lessons. it was an example of translation of the word "honeymoon" to my native language (turkish) as "balayı". bal meaning honey and ay meaning moon (which also means "month" and when i was a child i thought it lasted for a month lol). turkish has loaned the word computer mouse too as "fare", literally meaning mouse. i hope i can graduate.
i've also heard it called a calque
@@katakana1 ah yes that was what it was called in the lesson. thanks.
In polish this semantic loan also happened. We call it either "myszka" ("little mouse") or "mysz" ("mouse"), the latter is the more formal word.
@@katakana1 calque and semantic loan different. Calque is a direct translation of a word/phrase in another language to create a new word/phrase (the balayı for example) while semantic loan is just borrowing the meaning from the same word in another language. (like fare as mentioned)
@@biodtox it's interesting that you have a more formal world for computer mouse
Also, a lot of slurs come from insults- a majority of queer oriented slurs (Even the word queer itself) started off as insulting but was later reclaimed by some or most of the community. Even into today, almost all language queer people use for ourselves has some slur or insulting connotation. I remember growing up that gay and lesbian/lesbo were insults! And some people just make up slurs on the spot like 'pooner' from 4 chan, or 'sock' and 'theyfab' from twitter.
they rlly made new slurs and they didnt even tell me about it wtf
I'm pretty sure beeping out words is a surefire way for them to know you use swearing, as the bots checking it will recognise it instantly.
Maybe it falls into the normative category you spoke about, but swearing and the acceptability of some swear words can vary between countries that use the same language (well, kinda the same language). As an example, I often have to remind foreigners here in Scotland that "c*nt" can be completely harmless in some contexts in Scottish English and Scots, especially among friends where it can mean "friend" or "pal", which speakers of other variants of English (especially Americans) often have trouble understanding and getting used to. Maybe this happens everywhere, but just an example that came to mind. Great video as always, really thought provoking!
Oh that's interesting, I never knew that. I'm American, it does have a pretty disgusting and degrading connotation over here so I can understand why some Americans would have difficulty adjusting
I was half expecting a "and that's why you can find the uncensored version of this video on Nebula, this video's sponsor"
I personally find it interesting than practically the same word is in one language a slur but in a different related language it's a normal word, like the Polish word for Jew is 'Żyd' in Polish and 'Žid' in Czech in Slovak while in the Eastern Slavic languages (Ukrainian, Belarusian, russianl it's totally a slur for a Jew. Now, there Jews are called either Hebrews (by ethnicity) or Judaeans (by religion)
I mean "Russkiy" is a normal word in Russian that means Russian. In Polish "ruski" is a slur against Russians and the non-offending one is "Rosjanin".
There's something that happens with spanish dialects where a normal word in one dialect can be a swear word in another dialect, best example is "coger", in Castillian (Spain) it simply means "to grab", where in Rioplatense spanish (Uruguay and Argentina) it means "to f*ck"
not just rioplatense, a lot of latin america i believe
there's a meme that every single word of spanish means d*ck, p*ssy or f*ck in another dialect
There's a numberphile podcast where Tadashi Tokieda explains that there aren't really any swear words in Japanese
ファック exists, but that's a loanword so I guess it doesn't count.
And it might be because Japanese has ultra polite versions of speaking, whereas swearing is the opposite, more vulgar ways of speaking. so speaking casually works to show friends you’re comfortable and to show others that you don’t respect them. it’s interesting reading english subtitles for Japanese media when someone’s being rude because sometimes it’s just someone saying “you” (when speaking politely you either ommit saying it or you say the person’s name instead).
@@pheonixrises11 It also has to do with the big role context plays in Japanese. The word くそ is pretty similar to the English "shit" in terms of its range of meanings and uses, but it's not at all surprising for it to appear in media aimed at children, as long as it's used by the right characters in the right contexts. Heck it's even part of the common name for dung beetles, くそむし.
@@pheonixrises11 A counterpoint to that; Javanese, a language which _also_ has stratified version of speaking, _also_ has words that most would say as swears _on top_ of the rudeness of using the basic versions. "Asu" (lit. dog), "Bangke" (lit. Corpse), amongst others.
There just really aren't. There are pseudo-swears that are used in the place of swears in, say, English, but they are totally socially acceptable to say on TV and in front of children. One may subconsciously -avoid- saying such words in formal situations, but it would probably not be that big of a deal if one lets the word slip. くそ、畜生、etc.
Glad you were able to upload this video as this is a subject I like to talk about ever since my fifth grade teacher had to caution me about swearing. (The swear I was habitually using came about after watching the movie "Patton" just so you know.) The thing is she did a very good and reasoned job at why swearing was a bad thing. I can go on about that but for now at 5:52 however I believe you neglected to include one very important use, and that is "abusive."
Consider the case if you stub your toe, or accidentally cut yourself with a knife, etc. In that case go ahead and swear as much as you like. It signals you are in distress and are not in control of your emotions. Now if I were to seek dominance over someone I may include swearing in my arsenal indicating a lack of control over my emotions, (be wary or something terrible may happen to you), or have other implications to seek a sort of dominance over that individual.
A second problem is that swearing does devolve into bad situations. I can go from saying F-- this, or F-- me, and then it becomes F-- you. I use to work at a homeless drop-in centre and have seem how a little swear can explode into a violent fist fight. For most people swears are unobtrusive and even kind of cute in way, but unfortunately for some it is the language of abuse. Short answer: use swears with caution, if at all. (Sorry to be so preachy. Mrs. Trask could put it much better.)
Hey! Your videos are unique, interesting, and awesome! Being subscribed to your channel has given me a greater appreciation of different aspects of linguistics around the world. Keep up the work!
Hello. Best time for a video. 1:15 AM
ok ibah
I feel called out! 🤣
My mom told me to never curse, and I took that to mean that cursing was inherently bad and that no one should do it. When I heard others around me cursing, I got confused. Why can they swear while I can't? It turns out that twas dependent on the social context, but my autistic brain thinks in black & white: Is it good or bad? I turn 20 next month as of writing this comment, and I'm still afraid to curse.
I'm probably wrong but I think the American term 'curse' for swearing might have reinforced that idea. In the UK and other Commonwealth countries where 'curse' isn't used to mean swearing, people tend to swear a lot more openly than in America. Although the main reason for that is probably America's religiosity and social conservativism.
As an autistic person who was also raised to never swear, I have only sworn to let the people close to me know that I'm dead serious. It's a lot easier than trying to find the correct words to accurately describe what's going on.
I do on a daily basis and have ever since I was like 5 years old. Words such as fuck or shit are a part of my vocab.
I'm autistic and was raised with swearing being entirely fine
It doesn't make sense to irrationally prevent your children to say certain words at least in my (and my dad's) eyes
"Retardado" in Portuguese is not a slur (it's offensive but not to a demographic, at least where I live) so I was kind of shocked when I learned that "r*tard" is a slur in English, I'll make sure to keep that in mind.
We usually use the former to refer to our friends when they do something stupid, language sure can be weird sometimes.
To be fair, English often also uses that word in the same situation, when you're hanging out with your friends and they're doing something mindbogglingly stupid we sometimes say "are you ret***ed?!" But considering the ableistic connotations the word has now, it's considered pretty bad form to say now.
I don’t know the monetization status of this video, but the algorithm put this video in front of me today even though I’ve never seen your channel before and only watch videos about language on rare occasion, so I hope that’s a good sign for this video because it was delightfully informative!
As a nonnative Mandarin teacher, it used to crack me up that word for "sh*t" (屎 / shǐ ) had the same pronunciation as a common surname (史) and a few other innocuous words. In China, I noticed it's not a common expletive (unlike f*ck), and in daily life, the phrase 拉屎 (lā shǐ - to take a sh*t) is used much more often.
I hope this doesn’t get taken down or demonetized. It was actually very informative, thank you!
Always love a good linguistics channel. Just found you through "English is harder than you think" and the piraha video. Great stuff.
That brought a massive smile to my face! Thank you!
I can’t stress enough how good your video are. You give the facts quickly yet explain them in simple ways that effectively covers information without it feeling overwhelming. I don’t even like learning about English structures or it’s rule but I been enjoying your videos a lot. Keep it up!
Das war eine der kreativsten Weisen, nach einem Abo zu fragen, die mir bis jetzt untergekommen ist. Bravo!
Interestingly, in Norwegian the word for shit is not really considered offensive. "Skit", "skitt" or "drit". They are all mildly vulgar, but I don't think anyone would consider them swear words. They are more akin to something like "crap". We even use the english word "shit" but it's they same there. It's not really considered offensive. So I guess the connotation really hasn't transferred for us if that's the theory. Just thought that was vaguely interesting
Skit also seems to be used to refer to small amounts of dirt or other forms of uncleanliness.
thanks for this amazingly well put together video. everything was delivered in a way that seemed very soft despite the harsh topic
As an Australian, swearing is our polite English :) My mum thought it was funny how long it took me and my sister to swear, especially since nearly everyone we knew swore every second word... also I think it is funny how "cunt" is considered a harsher word, especially since my family uses it as a greeting.
I just can't imagine my mom greet me like "Hello my dear cunt"
One thing that's worth pointing out is that these days (no idea about previous generations), progressives and activists are eschewing euphemisms as overly patronizing or denying a person's identity.
See: Black vs. African-American, disabled vs. special needs, disabled vs... well, a whole lot of words, actually. This is a big thing in disability circles.
One of the things that bothers me the most is grammar getting destroyed when slurs are used, especially in Italian.
Also it's always been interesting to me how "inferno" and "diavolo" (hell and devil) are literally "a curse" on someone but are not really taboo? In the way English people consider them? Idk.
This has always been a reoccurring thought for me. Thank you!
'Swive' is now my new favourite expletive, great video as always K!
thank you!!!
@@kklein It doesn’t undemonetise your video though, which swiving sucks
it’s great to see two of my favorite youtubers working together to make videos about piss and shit
from personal experience of witnessing several internet eras come and by with their slangs and discourses, i can chime in with an observation: social ostracization is the core mechanic of how slurs gain their insulting meaning. the explicit intent to use a word (that may be, in itself, neutral, merely descriptive or medical) to other a person is what eventually makes the word a slur
r slur is a good example of the word that lost almost all of its original neutral meaning (it is still used in medical drug names with meaning that it has prolonged action due to slow release of the drug afaik) and got fully adopted into the pool of words used to ridicule others. in general, borrowing medical terms and use them as insults is a very common thing (think of all the cancer, aids, "go to therapy" jokes), because unfortunately we people are often callous and prone to pick a designated group of "inherently bad people it's okay to ostracize and dehumanize" even when we decide to judge on inborn traits, disabilities or illnesses
there's also the thing with generally non-offensive words being used as slurs without them becoming slurs in the end. in my native language, there's no specific slur for a lesbian (that isn't a direct derivative from the word), because the overall social climate in my country is generally so hopelessly homophobic, this inarguably neutral term becomes derogatory. not because the word is bad, but because being a lesbian is considered a bad thing in itself. i dont think we need a new word for lesbian as the result of this (though i do wish my country starts recognizing my demographic as people someday)
This video was amazing 👏👏👏
i find it interesting that old words like 'swive' (literally just meaning 'to engage in sexual intercourse') became a synonym for fuck (the exclamation) even though they both come from the same linguistic root. kind of like a semantic loan in one language.
when i watched Jay's video and you were mentioned i became enthrilled! More so pleasing to know that there's a parallel video from you 😃
I've definitely used regular English words as Spanish "swear words", mostly mother and egg, specially in a public space and want to use those words without sounding too rude.
Now this is a nice and informal video thank you
I was always told that the main word of the video was originally an abbreviation of Ship High In Transit which was posted on crates of manure being shipped on boats to colonies for fertilizer and were put high up to avoid the smell affecting the crew
Folk etymologies are amazing sometimes
5:53 The term for normative swearing in the examples used might be clowning? The ideas are rather similar. There's a theory for explaining how non-offensive offensive humor/speech functions. Essentially, offensive material is employed with the understanding that the participants won't take offense as a way of reinforcing in-group values. (The theory aims to answer the question "why/how do friends rib on each other?") It's been awhile since I had to study any of this, so take it with some skepticism outside of also noting the similarities and being baffled that clowning is a linguistic term.
Additionally, I think it's helpful since the theory directly explores the power dynamics of what is and isn't taboo. Something that can be overlooked with a simple formal/informal distinction is when language is taboo only for some participants and isn't for others. An example being a hierarchical structure where the higher rungs are allowed to employ further taboo speech due to the lack of consequences from above. In this instance usage of swearing becomes a reflection of status.
In Ireland we often call the bathroom "jacks", but "Jake" is a new one for me
Another great video, easy to understand and super interesting
i love this channel 😊
...oh my gosh, the skull in "Graveyard Keeper" says sard all the time, and I thought it was just a cutesy fantasy world made-up swear! I can't friggin' believe it!
...Actually, I'm curious what your thoughts are on minced epithets, like the ones I used up there. I grew up in a culture where swearing was considered totally verboten, and as I've started changing my habits around swearing, I've noticed that I still find use for minced epithets, even in contexts where I've become more willing to swear.
I kind of want a full hour of that half-improv guitar music
Yes thank you for teacher me how to use swears more correctly
You'll never top xidnaf when he just turbo-fired all the swear words he knew in one long segment ;) Either way, nice video!
I think we should bring back "I gotta take a split"
It sure would be nice if UA-cam focused their energy on stamping out bigotry on their platform, instead of squandering it on words that mommy said were no-no words.
Or even better, if they just let people make what they want to make. That's what made the platform big in the first place.
This video was an absolute youtube, well done!
incredible video
I was told not to swear by my parents (at least around them) so I sort of- used it as a form of rebellion? I still feel guilty about using them tho, and sometimes i go back to old comments and cencor myself
I feel like expletive use of swear words can also be like a “human’s bark”?
As in, like you know how every animal usually have a “default sound” they make when they just want to communicate?
I often feel like those expletive usage is similar to a “default human sound”. The content of the bark is meaningless, but voicing the energy out helps. Evolutionary survival wise, a simple word to indicate “something happened” is useful too, and often times when someone says “fuck” you can infer a lot of information simply from the tone and context.
So yeah, I feel like “fuck” might actually just be the default human sound.
I mean, except that it's English ...
Perfect time to watch this video. 3.30 am !
thank you for raising awareness about r slur
Airbus planes say retard during landing it that sense it means pull back the throttle
In Low German, which is spoken in Northern Germany where I live (though it's increasingly dying out), Words like "shit" and "to piss" ("Schiet(e)" and "piesche(r)n") are much less offensive than in English or Standard German (Scheiße, pissen). I.e. the word "Schietbüddel" might be used rather lovingly for someone, like "oh you little rascal", even though it literally means "bag of shit". And my parents used to use the Low German words when I was little even though otherwise we spoke only Standard German as they aren't considered offensive to kids unlike the Standard German ones
There really ought, he felt, to be some means of expressing rage and frustration verbally, some word or phrase or words or phrases you could use to signify sheer anger and despair, preferably with overtones of hostility, displeasure with the status quo and general lack of respect for the world as it's constituted. Ideally, such word, words, phrase or phrases would, in and of themselves, consitute an act of deliberate offence, because that's how I'm feeling right now and I'm pretty sure, if this is the way things are around here, I'm not the only one. Alright, let there be such a word. Let it be--
He considered. It'd have to start with a suitably projectile labial, followed by a vowel you could really put your heart and soul into, and terminating in a throaty guttural you could practically spit. Also, one syllable would be best. Anything longer would dissipate the effect.
"Oh fulk," he thought.
- When It's A Jar by Tom Holt
i watched both of your videos>:3
5:05 as a minecraft player, unfortunately i must confirm... that would be absolutely correct.
Fan. Jag svär så jävla mycket inser jag.... Jävligt bra video!
Det är lugnt. Vilken svensk blir upprörd av svordomar?
@@NotASummoner sant
I think you'd get a kick out of what the youtuber RTgame's trying to do right now. Basically, in response to youtube's stupidity, he's trying to get his community to make the word youtube a swear. It means an act of offensive and pointless stupidity, or a person who is frequently offensively and pointlessly stupid. However, it also has the exact opposite meaning of an act or person who acts with purposeful and intelligent helpfulness or something. Basically making it entirely reliant on connotation. I think it's a really youtube idea, and I thought I'd share it with you.
As a very UA-cam person, I am not only aware, but am sort of going with it.
French subscriber here, nitpicking (sorry!). « Baiser » is not a swearword. OTOH, sex-related words like « bordel » (a house of debauchery :), « putain » (a lady working in said house) and even « con/conne » most certainly are. Most people nowadays forget that the latter, a very rude way of calling someone an idiot, originated from an old crude word for ladies’parts.
Enjoying your videos very much. Thank you for your work.
5:34 Formal Context example 3.
I see what you did there, sneaking in a favorite movie ;)
K Klein on the path to bring Xidnaf into the 2020's, we love to see it!
I miss Xidnaf tbh.
5:17
"ah shitting hell"
lmao
the exploting villages one made me start
broo chill bro... Dayumn
Let's call people a UA-cam and turn it into a swear word, and watch the developers scramble
I'm just remembering an historical film where a union soldier chided his comrade not to use a certain term to refer to those with dark skin. In that same sentence, he used a term that would not be used today under most circumstances. I wonder if that was included just for fun or if it was some kind of commentary. I wouldn't know.
i love this pls more videos about swears
The term "nerd" is sometimes wrongly though to be an example of this: thought to have been offensive in the past, but nowadays starting to be more neutral. This notion is completely wrong. It is the attitude towards *_the thing it describes,_* that has changed. Somewhat. Amongst some people. It is used as a slur, by those who look down on nerds ...but neutrally by others, and positively by nerds. This has always been the case, and nothing about that has changed.
I think when nerd went from a description of someone who doesnt have sex, isnt conventionally attractive, and gets into niche hobbies, to literally everyone on earth who watches a single marvel movie, they just had to be more honest and specific as to WHY nerd was a looked down upon trait before everyone could be considered a member. (ex. Incel, Neckbeard, Niceguy , Autistic, Manchild, etc.)
Steve from american dad fits almost every pejorative listed here and he didnt even change all that much as the seasons went on.
@@Captain.Mystic Nerd means (more or less) "person with intellectual hobby". The no sex and bad at social matters, are not (and have never been) part of the definition, but are associations people have, in regards to such people
...and no, seeing Marvel movies, doesn't make you a nerd. (not watching them, because they are utterly unfaithful to the source material, on the other hand...)
Also: Why do you bring up incels and Niceguys? They are not nerds, in any way, whatsoever. Well, I mean you can be a nerd, and one of those, but...
Most nerds aren't Niceguys or incels, and most Niceguys/incels aren't nerds, so...
it's funny how different communities of speakers will also have differen't levels of "tabooness". take for example the case of spain: tho whole state, but specially northern and southern regions, is reaaaaally famous for how little level of tabooness it has (we have, as i am from the north-western part haha). like most american speakers (american as in latam, not as in the US, but it would definitely apply even more to people from the US) will always say we have really bad "speaking manners" bc of how much we swear. and it's true. in comparison, we swear a lot more and, most importantly, we swear in so many more contexts. like for example we'll swear in a lot of formal contexts which for other speakers would be a no-no place for bad words. but for us is just no big deal. bc of that we even have developed more complex expressions bc simple ones just didn't get the job done when it came to express frustration or emotion. that's why we've moved from insulting people to curse them. like, 95% of times spaniards won't insult (words like m*ron, 4ssh*le etc) you when in a conflict, we'll curse you with expressions like "i sh1t over all your d4ad relatives". that cursing can even get, specially in the northern part, blasphemous. like, most people from where im from, priest included, will "sh1t over g0d" when something just goes slightly wrong. in fact, i used the past tense in "simple ones just didn't get the job done" bc we used so much the reinforced cursing expressions for conflict they've just..... lose their power too jhkdfhgjksd like cursing for my gramma or grangran would be actually offensive, but not anymore for my parents generation. so these last years a new trend has started of restoring and using again really old simple expressions in conflict with others. the more vanilla and unoffensive their meaning is, the more offensive that words get pragmatically, bc basically you're showing that you're not even bothered nor respect enough the other person to even curse them properly. so words like "notas" pringao" "friki" (all of those just mean "silly" or "loser") are nowadays actually much more offensive for spanish speakers than sh1tting over all their d4ad relatives hfgjkhsfkjgd
P.S. it's noteworthly how european spanish has been undergoing a process of "deformalitation" in which most formal expressions and ways of speaking are just not used anymore. we've totally lost usage of formal second person pronouns for example. i'd say that process also helps loosing up part of the social stigma that creates linguistic taboos to being with.
love this ******* content, it's good as ****
i watched this while trying not to do work and my eyes glazed over. minutes later i learned the etymology of various swears and slurs and i don't know how to feel about that
im so glad i have representation in this video at 1:33
Same, yay
"swive" and "sard" absolutely need to be brought back into common use. there are already language revival movements, so vernacular revival movements are the next logical step.
and if you think that's a dumb idea then swive off
EDIT:
i was thinking about the word "sard" and realized that if you say it in a nonrhotic accent, it sounds a bit like "sod". so i was like "holy shit, is sard the origin of the phrase 'sod off?' " i thought it might be an ass/arse situation, where since it's a rude word, it wouldn't have been commonly recorded. with a few centuries of dialectal divergence, the two words would have evolved in different directions, to the point that when written, they don't even appear to refer to the same thing. so, i looked it up and it turns out that...
i was utterly wrong in every bit of that theory.
always check your work
i looooove your videos! i study translation sciences so they're very fun to watch - but sometimes i want to tear my hair out because of some of the comments 😅 I'd love a video on like... prescriptive vs descriptive nature of language and language evolution - I'm a nonbinary viewer and i Hate hearing "you can't just invent words!!" as if... that's how language works....
"You can't invent words!"
Every language: ✌🏾*disappears*
I could have sworn I saw a video from you quite some time ago on this topic. Can’t seem to find it any more.
perhaps in a parallel universe ahahaha. can confirm, never uploaded anything of the sort :)
@@kklein ah, you’re right, just found the video i was thinking of (ua-cam.com/video/KWXfvKtGbu4/v-deo.html). Mixing you up with a similar youtube, sorry!
Imagine being named jake 😂 0:45
In Dutch the word for shit is "schijt", but no one swears with it.
Love the reference at 5:05
Real funny that in videos people went sailor mode on these words and they don't happen to be demonitized, but if another one did, they do. Seems like a company ending with "tube" (Can be yuberscuitube, oysctube, or umeersotube) have channel favorites
I think you've "zoomed in too close", so to speak. Rather than thinking about why words are seen as bad in a given society, zoom out and consider who controls that society. For a significant amount of recorded history, societies in the global north have been dictated by an overclass of wealthy people (lords / royalty in feudalism, the bourgeoisie in capitalism), so consider their class character and the things they would find taboo.
Perhaps the swear word for "poop" in Euro languages became taboo because the dictator class have never had to shovel shit, and get members of the lower class(es) to do it, and so by association they consider it taboo to use the lower class(es)'s word for it. Just a thought.
thatss actually pretty believable.